2. Fix police training
Contrary to popular belief, the police are not in place to preserve peace, keep violent criminals off the streets, or maintain order. The primary purpose of the police is to enforce the laws. Many times, that results in the above benefits, but those are secondary to their main job. The fact that nobody knows how many federal laws are on the books or what those laws criminalize means anybody could be breaking the law at any time without realizing it. Consider too that those federal laws are added onto existing state and local laws, making it quite a burden for anybody to truly be a law-abiding citizen, and for police to know who to target and who to ignore. Although repealing laws that create victimless crimes would reduce encounters between police and civilians, as well as demilitarizing the police, there would still be a chance for brutality in the interactions that would continue to happen. To minimize these risks, police training should be retooled to focus more on alternatives to the “shoot first and ask questions later” style that so many cops are taught, as well as reminding them that modern police are far safer than they’ve been through most of American history. These changes will lead to fewer police being afraid that every other person they see is going to kill them, causing them to use tactics intended to deescalate hostile situations rather than being so quick to use deadly force when other options are viable.
